say the architecture in this country is good”.
“Why’ve we never heard about it?” asked Lon, remaining sceptical.
“Obviously somebody doesn’t want you to know,” said Tan.
Cat stood from her chair and began to walk the path through the sand to the nearby lookout point. “Come here a minute,” she said to them.
The other three followed her through the thick, hot rays of the sun towards the glass barrier bounding the lookout point.
“You see that beach down there?”
She stretched her arm across the barrier and pointed far below them to the shoreline, which had a strip of greenery on the opposite side of the sand to the ocean with white specks here and there. It appeared as though there may also have been a road running alongside the sand.
“From there you can see the mountain,” she said.
“If that’s the case, then why hasn’t anyone who’s been down there ever told anyone?” asked Lon.
“You see those white dots in the greenery down there?” Cat asked, “They’re mansions”.
“Is it?” exclaimed Eve.
“Yes, and who lives in mansions by the beach in this city?” Cat added.
“I don’t know, because I’ve never heard of it,” said Lon.
“Exactly. You’ve never heard of it because the people who live down there are either those from the high echelons of the government, or their billionaire supporters. They have no reason to want you to know that there’s a mountain”.
“Surely this information would be on the internet,” posited Lon.
“It was,” said Tan, “it was on the internet since the internet was invented. In fact, it’s still there”.
“Then why don’t we know about it?! Somebody must have read about it by now,” said Lon, who was starting to get annoyed with his lack of this new possible knowledge.
“This is the point we’ve been trying to make Lon,” said Tan, “everything that the government doesn’t want you to know, for whatever reason, is removed from public knowledge, and our internet and media access are restricted . It’s not difficult for them to do; even if there’s a huge demonstration somewhere in the country and the military are deployed to silence the protesters with bullets and tanks - which has happened before - the government will make sure no one finds out. And what’s worse is most people won’t believe such an event ever happened, even when presented with proof!”
“Obviously I know our government are capable of terrible things,” admitted Lon, “and I’ve always maintained that, but some of the things you’re telling me just don’t sound plausible”.
“That’s exactly the problem,” said Cat, “you as well have been brainwashed!”
“Actually,” interrupted Eve, “I can believe that. Something like that has happened in China a few times in the last couple of hundred years”.
“Yeah, and there have also been other countries that were completely cut off from the outside world due to their government policies,” appended Tan.
“If you don’t believe us now, you soon will,” asserted Cat.
Lon and Eve were both feeling bewildered at the prospect that all they had ever known to be true was possibly a lie.
“Anyway, I’d better go,” said Tan, “I told Thandi I’d be back by lunch. By the way Cat, I passed on some potentially useful data to your palm screen. It wasn’t difficult for me to obtain, but I processed it and added annotations”.
“Oh, that’s nice,” Cat said, ever committed to her casual demeanour, “I’ll check you later then”.
“You’re leaving?” asked Lon. “Where are we gonna go?”
“You’re going with Cat,” Tan said.
“Going where?” asked Eve.
“You’ll find out when we get there,” Cat inserted.
Tan began to walk in the direction of his car. “Keep me posted”.
“Will do!” said Cat and gave him a slight wave.
“Oh, before we forget,” added Tan, “Lon, you need to get your stuff from my car”.
“Oh!” exclaimed Lon when he remembered the
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